Page 72 - Innovative Professional Development Methods and Strategies for STEM Education

A Paradigm Shift for Teachers’ Professional Development Structure in Turkey

INTRODUCTION

The Importance of Professional Development
Programmes for Science Teachers

Considering today’s competition-based systems and developments on the international stage, one can
appreciate the importance of raising individuals possessing the skills that respond to the requirements of
our age (Miaoulis, 2009). For this reason, investment in science, technology, engineering, and mathemat-
ics (STEM) literacy are very much on the increase. In STEM education, as in all educational systems,
this investment and support focus on the students, teachers, and training programmes and the efficiency
and effectiveness of educational systems depend on these three elements moving in harmony towards a
specific target. A breakdown, weakness, ineffectiveness, or malfunctioning in any of these elements is
bound to lower the efficiency of the whole system. Today, academic performance and a positive change
in students in terms of various skills are considered to be the barometers of efficiency and success in
education.
The most important factor in ensuring these positive changes in students in terms of various skills
and academic performance is, undoubtedly, the teacher (Rivkin, Hanushek, & Kain, 2005), because,
as pointed out by researchers who have studied the link between the exercise of the profession and the
learning outcomes, a crucial relationship exists between teachers’ adequacy and students’ performance
(Hoy & Miskel, 2008; Junor-Clarke & Fourniller, 2012; Guskey, 2014). Training well-qualified teachers
is only possible through an effective implementation of the pre-service and in-service educational activi-
ties (Darling-Hammond, 1999; Darling-Hammond & Bransford, 2005). In order for teachers to keep up
with the contemporary requirements of the educational sector in their professional lives and to educate
individuals possessing the skills demanded of them, they need to constantly refresh their capabilities
and take part in the in-service training activities organized for this purpose. The link between in-service
training programmes and teachers’ professional development directly affects school development and
students’ learning quality (Kennedy, 1998). When this interaction is taken into account, the need for a
proper assessment of the targets and structuring of these in-service training programmes cannot be missed.

Structure and Implementation of Professional Development Programmes

All over the world, traditional in-service training programmes are implemented in the form of seminars
and presentations to raise the teacher’s teaching abilities and knowledge however, improving teachers’
performance in the classroom requires developing their practical skills (McCann, Alan, & Gail, 2012).
In-service training programmes should not only present teachers with the opportunity to learn new things
but also provide them with a setting where they can put their theoretical knowledge into practice (Avalos,
2011). Only in this way can in-service training programmes achieve their main goal of bringing about
a difference in teachers’ attitudes and beliefs, their ways of teaching, and their students’ performance
(Guskey, 2002). From this perspective, traditional in-service training concepts appear to have become a
learning environment for all. This transition has had an impact on the administrators, teachers, and the
schools which are continuous research settings for students (Fullan, 2001; Knight, 2007; Loucks-Horsley,
1995; Loucks-Horsley, Stiles, & Hewson, 1996).
In addition to being a process that needs prioritized planning and implementation that will allow
educational reforms to be applied and new approaches to be put into practice, in-service training for

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